


Over the Edge

by babydolljones1104



Series: The Westons [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, POV First Person, Present Tense, Science Fiction, Sequel, Stranger Things 3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:41:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 16,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25231795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babydolljones1104/pseuds/babydolljones1104
Summary: Seven months ago, Vivian Weston would have said that perfect lives don't exist. But hers feels pretty close to being perfect. She's been living her life for herself and she couldn't be happier. She's abandoned her plans to follow in her father's footsteps to become a lawyer and now plans on going to culinary school after she graduates. But until then, Vivian plans on spending her time making up for all the fun she missed out on while she spent the last sixteen years studying way too much. She's ready to spend her summer focusing on anything other than schoolwork. She's ready to start enjoying life.But everything comes crashing down around Vivian in less than seventy-two hours when Billy stands her up and breaks up with her without giving an explanation, she finds out that her boss and her dad seem to be making super-secret deals with Russians, and she accidentally assists in kidnapping the mayor. Things only get worse when Vivian finds out that all these things might be connected, and that the one thing they all have in common is the worst thing she could imagine.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Original Character(s), Billy Hargrove/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Westons [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748674
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

_June 28, 1985_

When I get in the Camaro after work, the first thing I say is, “Promise you won’t get mad, ok?”

“What did you do?” Billy asks me.

“I told Kline that I’d go to Indianapolis on Sunday. He needs me to pick up something from my dad’s office.” Thanks to my dad and Mayor Kline being best friends, I have a position as a very well paid intern at the mayor’s office. It’s an easy job. Basically, all I do is drive papers between Hawkins and my dad’s office in Indianapolis. I’d ask why they don’t use a fax machine, but I’m getting paid too much to question things.

“So?”

“So, we can’t go to my aunt and uncle’s cabin tomorrow night.”

“Why not? We were already planning on coming back Sunday. We’ll just leave early in the morning.”

“Yeah, but that’s going to be a lot of driving for me. I need to stay in Hawkins tomorrow night. And before you say anything, I already came up with another plan for us.”

Billy laughs. “I’m not surprised.”

“I told you, when I’m not dealing with things for my dad and Kline, I have pretty much nothing else to do. I’m a glorified delivery girl.”

“I don’t get it. Why don’t they just use a fax machine like normal people?”

“They do.” I shrug as I add, “Just not with each other, I guess.”

“You don’t think it’s weird that your dad got you a job where you’re being paid way too much money to drive papers between him and the mayor of Hawkins? Especially after he cut you off, told you he’s not going to pay for your college unless it’s law school, and then tried to bribe you into breaking up with me?”

I sigh. “Kennedy wasn’t supposed to tell you about the whole bribing thing.”

“It’s not a big deal. It’s not like your dad hating me is a secret.”

“Look, I know it’s weird,” I say. “But maybe he feels bad for being such an asshole for the past seven months. Maybe he’s trying to make it up to me.”

I know Billy doesn’t believe it, but he doesn’t argue. Instead, he asks, “So, if we’re not going to the cabin tomorrow night, what’s your plan?”

“Well, we both have the fourth off, so we can go to the cabin on Wednesday night. We can spend Thursday there, I’ll call in sick on Friday, and you have Friday off anyway. We can come back here on Friday night.”

“We’ll do that, but we should still do something tomorrow night.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know,” He says in a way that tells me he already has an idea. “Maybe we could get a motel room or something.”

“I’m not against that, but how are we going to get a room?”

“I’m eighteen now, remember?”

“I don’t think about it a lot. I’m worried I’ll bring it up at the wrong time. You know my dad would freak out if he knew.” Personally, I don’t think there’s much of a difference between sixteen and eighteen, but Billy and I both know that my dad won’t see things that way.

“About our plans tomorrow night or about me being eighteen?”

“Both.” I guess it’s a good thing my parents are in the middle of the Atlantic ocean right now and will be for the next three weeks until their cruise is over.

“So, should I get a room somewhere for tomorrow night?” Billy asks.

“Sounds good to me,” I answer with a grin.

Forty-five minutes later, I come out of my bathroom after taking a shower and getting dressed for the party we’re going to. Billy is on my bed, looking through a book. “Flowers in the Attic?” He asks as I sit down next to him to put my Converse on.

“Kennedy loves it. I can't get into it, though."

"So, _that’s_ what Kennedy is into."

I roll my eyes as I grab the book from him and get up to put it on my desk. “I don’t think I’m going to finish it. It’s too weird.”

Billy sits up as he says, “By the way, I reset your clock for you.”

“It was off?”

“Yeah. Probably from the power outage earlier.”

Earlier tonight, the power downtown went out. It was only for a minute or two, and to be honest, I forgot about it until now. "The whole town lost power?" I ask.

“That’s what I heard.”

“Did it go out at your place?”

He nods.

"That's weird," I mutter.

"It's typical of a place like this."

"Power outages never happened in California?" I ask in disbelief.

"Of course they did. But it’s not like entire cities were losing power."

“That’s never happened here,” I tell him. “Except for this one time like, a year before you moved here. But that was…” I trail off. That was the night El opened the Gate to the Upside Down and the Demogorgon took Will Byers.

“That was what?” Billy asks.

“That was the only time the power has gone out like that,” I say after a moment.

Billy stares at me like he knows I’m lying, but he doesn’t push the subject. “All I’m saying is, that doesn’t happen in California.”

Billy talks about California a lot. I know that he hates Hawkins and misses California, and the things he tells me about his life there makes me wish that I’d grown up somewhere other than here. “California sounds nice,” I tell him. “I’d love to go someday.”

"We could.” He pauses before saying, “We could move there if we wanted."

"I still have a year of high school left.”

"I know. We'll wait until you graduate. That's less than a year from now."

"You'd wait for me to finish high school?"

"Of course.” He stands up and wraps his arms around my waist. "I love you, Viv,” He says before kissing me.

I smile as I ask, "You sure you can handle another winter in Hawkins?"

"For you? It will be worth it."

"You're only saying that because you’re going to steal my hats and scarves." Winter in Indiana had not been kind to Billy. He’d never seen snow before moving here, and he was miserable. There had been multiple occasions where I gave Billy my hat or scarf just to stop his whining.

"I'll buy my own this winter," He promises. "So, what do you think? California next year?"

"It does sound nice," I admit

"You'll love California," He tells me. "You can go to culinary school there."

I grin. "And I'll open my own restaurant."

"Then we'll buy a house on the beach."

I bite my lip as I consider it. California does sound nice. And I know that I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in Hawkins.

“What do you think?” Billy asks again.

"Let's do it," I say. "Let's go to California."

"One year from today?"

I nod. "One year from today."


	2. Chapter 2

When Billy and I walk through the front door at Tina’s house, Kennedy comes over and says, “It’s about time you guys got here.”

Tina’s parents are out of town, and as usual, she took the opportunity to have a party. Like all her other parties, it seems like every single person from school is here.

“I only got off work an hour ago,” I say. “I wasn’t going to come to a party looking like a secretary.” I remember Kennedy telling me this morning that Steve was driving her here, and I ask, “Is Steve here? It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve seen him.”

“That sounds great,” Billy says. “Why would you complain about that?”

“Because he’s my friend,” I answer flatly.

“He’s out back talking to some guys from the basketball team,” Kennedy tells me.

“Isn’t it kind of weird that he’s at a high school party even though he’s not in high school anymore?” Billy asks.

“You and I aren’t in high school anymore either,” Kennedy reminds him.

“Yeah, but I came here with Viv,” Billy says, putting his arm around me. “What’s your excuse?”

“Tina asked us to come.”

I ask her, “So, did you guys come here together?” A few months ago, Kennedy admitted to me that she’s been crushing on Steve since they had gone to a concert together back in December. I already knew that, but apparently Kennedy’s own feelings were a surprise to her.

“He drove me here, if that’s what you mean.”

I can’t help smirking when I say, “It’s not.” When Billy first moved here, Kennedy wouldn’t stop bothering me about him and I getting together. Now I have the opportunity to show her how annoying it is, and I take advantage of it as much as possible.

Kennedy rolls her eyes. “If there was any progress in my love-life, do you think I would have waited this long to bring it up?”

“No.”

“I don’t get why you haven’t said anything to him,” Billy tells Kennedy. “Normally you’re not scared of anything.”

“I’m not scared.”

Kennedy is clearly lying, but I still ask, “Then what is it?”

“I don’t know.” She’s quiet for a moment before asking, “Do you guys think I should tell him?”

I shrug. “You know that I know nothing about guys.”

“You’re not as clueless as you pretend to be,” Billy tells me.

I shoot him a dirty look. “Thanks.”

“That’s a good thing.”

“Maybe for you,” Kennedy mutters.

I turn back to her. “What’s the worst that could happen if you tell Steve you like him?”

“He would know that I like him.”

Billy laughs and I smack him on the arm before saying to Kennedy, “Right, but besides that.”

“If he knows and he doesn’t feel the same way, our entire friendship would be ruined.”

“Maybe he’ll like you back.”

“Vivi, you know how I feel about false hope.”

“It’s not false hope. Statistically speaking, there’s a fifty-fifty chance of things going either way. He either likes you or he doesn’t.”

Kennedy sighs before saying, “You have a terrifying way of simplifying things.”

“Besides, you’re the one who’s always saying that life is too short to not go after what you want,” I remind her. “So, go after what you want.”

“I will.” Then she holds up her cup. “I’ll see you guys later. I’m going to get more beer.”

I turn back to Billy as Kennedy walks off and say, “I have never seen her so nervous about a guy.”

“Do you think she’s going to tell him?”

I shake my head. “Eventually, maybe. But not tonight.”

“Why is she so into Harrington? Of all people.”

“A lot of girls think he’s good-looking,” I say with a shrug.

“Do you?”

“Not as good-looking as you.”

He laughs. “Good answer.”

“Seriously, though, they’d make a cute couple.”

“They’re complete opposites.”

I look up at Billy as I remind him, “So are we. We’re good together, aren’t we?”

He kisses me. “We’re perfect together.”

A song by The Cars starts playing, and I say, "I love this song."

"I still can't believe you like The Cars.”

“I know you secretly love them."

“I’m not admitting to anything.”

“I don’t hear you denying anything, either.” I grab his hand. “Come on, let’s go have fun.”

As we walk through the house, Billy asks, “If someone had told you one year ago that you would spend this summer actually having fun, would you have believed them?”

“Not at all,” I answer. “But now I can’t imagine things any other way.”


	3. Chapter 3

_June 29, 1985_

Since I have Saturday off, I decide to spend my day at the pool. When I get there, Billy is sitting in one of the lifeguard chairs. As I walk over, he asks me, “Is that a new suit?”

I nod. “I bought it when I went to the mall the other day.”

“You look good.”

“I thought you’d say that.” Billy always thinks that I look good, and if I’m being honest, it’s given me a bit of an ego problem. Not as bad as his, but it doesn’t change the fact that I have one.

He laughs.

I look at him. “What’s so funny?”

“I’m just thinking about when we first met and you pretty much refused to accept any compliments from me.”

“I told you, I couldn’t tell if you were messing with me.”

“My compliments are never fake with you, Viv.”

I can’t help smiling when I say, “I know.” For the millionth time since November, I think about how lucky I am. My life has changed so much in the past seven months. I’m finally living my life the way I want to, and I’ve never been happier. Sometimes I’m afraid that I’m going to wake up and realize that this is all just a dream.

“You know, my break is in a few minutes,” He says slowly. “I can get the keys to the storage room.”

I roll my eyes. “I already told you I was only doing that once. Besides, we have plans tonight.”

“I know. I already got the room.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. I stopped by this morning. It’s the Motel 6 on Cornwallis. I’ll give you one of the keys when my break starts.”

“Sounds good.”

“You know that I’d never complain about having you around, but shouldn’t you be tutoring that girl right now?”

I shake my head. “She has something going on today.” Since January, I’ve been tutoring El on the weekends. She can’t go to a normal school, so Hopper hired me to be a homeschool teacher of sorts. But I have today off from that job since Dustin is coming home from summer camp and El is spending the day with her friends. I suppose I’m going to have to cancel tomorrow, too, since I have something to do for Kline.

A few minutes later, when Billy goes on his break, he goes into the locker room and comes back with a key to the motel room. “It’s room 206,” He tells me. “I was thinking we could meet there around eight.”

“That sounds perfect.”

A few hours later, I’m still at the pool. Billy is on another break, and he’s sitting at the end of my chair when he tells me, “I should probably start getting ready. My break ends in a few minutes.”

“I think I’m gonna head home,” I say as I sit up. The only reason I ever come to the pool to hang out with Billy on his breaks, anyway.

He kisses me and says, “I’ll see you tonight.”

Alice Peterson walks by then, glaring at us as she passes.

I watch her before telling Billy, "I don't get why that girl hates me so much.” Other than the fact that Billy had used studying with me as an excuse to not hang out with her once, I’ve never done anything to her. And even then, that was something Billy did, not me.

"Well, there is something I've never told you.”

“Do I want to know?”

“It’s nothing bad,” He says with a shrug. “But do you remember on my first day when she was hitting on me and I told her that you and I had a date?" I nod and he goes on, "Well, the reason she wasn’t taking no for an answer was because I already made plans with her that morning."

“You ditched her for me?" I ask in shock.

“Yeah."

"But you do know that if you had taken her home instead of me, you probably would have done something better than studying, right?”

“I know. But I knew that getting to spend time with you would be worth it, and I was right."

I grin as I get up to leave. "I’ll see you tonight.”

When I get to the motel a few hours later, Billy isn’t there yet. That doesn’t surprise me. I’m five minutes early, and he’s never early for anything. In fact, he shows up to most things late.

At eight-twenty, I’m still waiting and I’m starting to get annoyed. Billy is never this late. Not when he has plans with me, anyway.

At eight-thirty, I call his house. Max answers the phone, and I say, "Hey. Is Billy there?"

"No. He left a while ago. He said he was going to see you."

“Was that before or after eight?” I ask.

“Before.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Max tells me. “It was before.”

I don’t say anything. If Billy left before eight, he should have gotten here around the same time I did. This place is closer to his house than mine.

“What time were you supposed to meet?”

“Eight,” I answer. I try to sound casual as I add, “It’s probably nothing. You know he’s late to everything. I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

“Yeah,” She says, not sounding very sure at all.

I know what we’re both thinking. It doesn’t take this long to get anywhere in Hawkins.

“I’m sure he’ll be here soon,” I say again, more to myself than Max, before hanging up.

Half an hour later, I’m still waiting. At ten, I’m ready to give up and go home. I try calling Billy again, and just like last time, Max picks up.

“It’s Vivian,” I say when she answers the phone.

“You still haven’t heard from him?”

“No. If you see him, will you tell him to call me?"

"Yeah, I’ll tell him."

"Thanks.” I don’t wait for a response before hanging up. Then I go home.


	4. Chapter 4

It’s still dark when the phone in my room starts ringing and wakes me up. I roll over and look at the clock. It’s one in the morning. I don’t waste another second before answering the phone. There’s only one person who would be calling me this late. "You better have a really good excuse for standing me up tonight," I say sharply.

Billy’s only response is, “Can I come over?”

"Are you kidding me? It's one in the morning."

"Viv-"

I cut him off with, "I waited for hours. Where were you?"

"If you let me come over, I'll explain."

"Fine. Whatever."

"I'll be there in a few minutes," Billy says before hanging up.

I’m standing on my front porch when Billy pulls up ten minutes later. This isn’t a conversation I want to have inside. I feel like I might start yelling, and I don’t want to wake Kennedy up.

Billy gets out of the car and as he walks over to me, I can’t help thinking that he looks horrible. He’s covered in sweat, dirt, and something that might be blood. “Are you ok?” I ask him. “You look like hell.”

“I crashed the car, but I’m fine.”

“What? When?”

“On my way to see you. Outside that steel factory. I think I hit an animal or something. I’d say that we can talk in the car, but I can’t open the passenger door.”

“How bad is it?” It’s too dark for me to see the damage to the car from here.

“I don’t know. I don’t even want to think about it right now. My dad’s going to kill me when he finds out.”

I know Billy already said he’s all right, but he looks bad enough that I ask again, “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“I’m sure.”

Something in his voice sounds weird to me, and I realize that if he crashed on his way to see me, that would have been over five hours ago. Where has he been since then? "So, that's why you didn't show up?" I ask slowly.

"That’s part of it."

“What do you mean? What else happened?"

He doesn’t say anything.

I don't know what, but something is obviously going on. There's something Billy isn't telling me. I put my hand on his arm. “Billy-”

That's when something in him changes. Billy grabs me by the shoulders and slams me back against the front door.

“What the hell are you doing?” I cry.

"I don't want to hurt you, Viv," He says even as he looks at me with pure hate.

Something is seriously wrong with him. He has never looked at me this way. "What the hell is wrong with you?” I ask.

"He's making me."

My first thought is that Billy is on drugs. That would explain his appearance. That would explain the violence and why he’s making absolutely no sense right now.

“I’m not crazy,” He tells me. “I swear to god, I’m not crazy.”

"I didn't say-"

"But you're thinking it."

"No, but...” I trail off, not sure how to put it. Finally, I just ask, “Did you take something tonight?"

"I'm not on drugs."

"Ok,” I say slowly. "Can you let go of me? You’re hurting me."

"He won't let me."

_He._ That’s the second time Billy has said that.

I ask him, "Who are you talking about?"

"I can't tell you."

"If you tell me what's going on, I can try to help you."

"He'll make me kill you."

I don’t know what to say to that. I know that I should probably be scared, but I'm not. At this point, I'm in denial. I cannot believe this is happening. I’m not even sure _what_ is happening, really. Billy’s hands are still on my shoulders, and I grab his wrists and dig my nails in, hoping that I can snap him out of whatever this is. "Just talk to me, ok? Whatever it is, we can figure out-"

He pulls his arms out of my grip, and one of his hands is around my throat as he says in a dark voice, "You need to stop talking before I make you stop."

His grip is too loose to hurt me, but I know that the threat is real. I know that I should stop talking. Still, I quietly say, “Just tell me what’s going on.” I sound strangely calm, even to myself. All I can think is that this isn’t Billy. He would never hurt me. He would never even threaten to hurt me.

Billy stares at me for a moment before letting go of me and backing away. "We’re done,” He says softly. “You need to stay away from me.”

I’m in too much shock to try to stop him when he leaves.


	5. Chapter 5

_June 30, 1985_

I’m not able to go back to sleep after Billy leaves, so at five in the morning, I give up on sleeping, get the keys to my dad’s office, and leave for Indianapolis.

The drive to Indianapolis is a long one, which means that I have plenty of time to think. Normally I don’t mind the drive. By now I’m used to it. I usually enjoy the drive and put the top of my car down, blast music, and enjoy feeling the wind on my face and in my hair. But today is different. I can’t stop thinking about what happened last night no matter how hard I try. I have a million questions running through my mind, and I don’t have the answers to any of them.

It’s still early enough that when I get to my dad’s office, his secretary, who works even on Sundays, isn’t there yet.

Mayor Kline gave me very specific instructions regarding these documents he wanted me to pick up. Get the keys to my dad’s filing cabinet, which are in the top drawer of his desk. Get the lockbox in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet. Get the keys to the lockbox, which are hidden in a fake book on the top shelf of my dad’s bookcase. Then bring the keys and the lockbox straight to City Hall. And just like all the other times I’ve done this, I’m not supposed to open the box, let alone read the documents inside.

I wasn’t planning on reading the documents. I never do. But the fact that Mayor Kline constantly tells me not to read them, along with the fact that he and my dad go to a lot of trouble to keep all these documents hidden, is making me curious. After nearly a month of doing this, my curiosity finally gets the best of me. Even though I know I shouldn’t, I open the lockbox. I open the envelope inside and look at the documents. They’re a bunch of land deeds and sales documents. There’s one for the lot where the Starcourt Mall is located, but there are others for residential properties on the outskirts of Hawkins.

I don’t understand. My dad isn’t a real estate lawyer, so why does he have all of these land deeds in his office? And if they’re just real estate deals, I’m not sure why the mayor and my dad feel the need to be so secretive.

But then I notice that two of the names on the document, the signatures that don’t belong to Kline or my dad, look like Russian. "What the hell?" I mutter. My dad is helping Mayor Kline sell land to Russians? Russians own the mall?

I want to know what these documents are about, but I don’t have time to sit around and read them. My dad’s secretary could come in at any moment. So, I use the copy machine in my dad's office to make copies of all the documents, which I put in a separate envelope that I label ‘C’ for copies. I don’t want to accidentally give Mayor Kline the copies I made.

I don't know what I’m going to do with these, but I feel like it might be a good idea to have them.

When I return to Hawkins, I go straight to City Hall like I’m supposed to. I pass Hopper, who’s sitting out in the hall, looking very impatient. “Hey, Hop,” I say as I pass him.

“Hi, Vivian. Can you tell your boss to let me in?” He sounds annoyed as he adds, “He’s the one who called me here.”

“I’m nothing more than a glorified, one-girl, Pony Express,” I tell him with a shrug. “Sorry.” I walk over to Kline’s secretary, Candace. “I brought what Kline wanted.”

She stops filing her nails and stares up at me like I just ruined her day. She doesn’t like me and I haven’t been able to figure out why. She presses a button on the speakerphone on her desk and says, “Larry, Vivian is here.” Then she goes back to filing her nails.

“You know, I think it’s kind of weird that you call our boss by his first name,” I tell her. “I mean, it’s oddly informal for a place like this.” Maybe being a bitch to my only coworker isn’t a good idea, but she’s the one who started it.

She shrugs. “Larry and I are close.”

“Does his wife know?”

“Does your dad know that the boy who always picks you up is eighteen?”

I can’t help sounding bitter when I answer, “It doesn’t matter. He’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

“Why did you dump him?”

“Why do you think I’m the one who did the breaking up?”

“You may be a brat, but for some reason, that boy is crazy about you. Even just the way he looks at you makes it obvious.”

I don’t say anything. I love Billy, and I thought he loved me. But I guess I was wrong. He doesn’t even care about me enough to explain why he broke up with me.

Kline finally responds, and tells Candace, “Send her in.”

When I walk into Kline’s office, he’s sitting behind his desk with some guy I’ve never seen before sitting across from him. “You’re earlier than I expected,” Mayor Kline tells me as I walk in.

I hand him the lockbox and the keys as I say, “I had an early start this morning.”

“Just let me make sure everything is here.”

The other man moves the motorcycle helmet off the seat next to him, and I sit down. I can feel him watching me, but I’m watching Kline, praying that I put the right envelope in the lockbox, even though I already checked in the car.

Mayor Kline doesn’t look up from the papers as he says, “I’m sorry, how rude of me. Grigori, this is Vivian. She’s Victor’s daughter.”

I look over at Grigori. My dad knows this guy? This guy looks like he kills people for a living, maybe even for fun. I have no idea what he could have with my dad or Kline.

He doesn’t say anything as he holds out his right hand.

I shake his hand and say, “It’s nice to meet you.”

He doesn’t respond.

Ok, then.

Mayor Kline puts the papers back in the envelope, then puts the envelope back in the lockbox. “It looks like everything is here. Thank you, Vivian. I know that you were supposed to have today off, so why don’t you take tomorrow off instead?”

“Thank you,” I say. “I’ll see you Tuesday morning.” I don’t waste any time getting out of there. I pass Hopper in the hall again and he looks even more annoyed than he did when I’d come in. “Good luck,” I tell him when I pass by.

I go home and sit down in the living room, spreading my copies of the documents across the coffee table. The sales agreements all seem pretty standard from what I can tell. But there’s one thing I find odd: All of these properties were paid for in cash. They were grossly overpaid for, too.

“What are you doing, Dad?” I whisper as I look at the Russian signatures again.

Whatever is going on, it’s obvious that my dad and the mayor are doing something bad. Why else would they go through so much trouble to keep it a secret? And to think that my dad was the one who had encouraged me to apply for the internship at Kline's office.

I laugh bitterly. Of course he had. I was probably the only choice for the job. My dad knew that I would do whatever he or Kline told me to, no questions asked. But now that I know that something is going on, I need to figure out who to go to with this information. I’ve probably unknowingly been taking part in something illegal for almost a month now. I've made plenty of trips from Hawkins to Indianapolis, driving things back and forth for my dad and Kline.

I can't keep doing whatever they had me doing. I won't. I just need to figure out how to stop it.

I spend hours looking over the papers, but I don’t realize how long it’s been until Kennedy comes home. “What are those?” She asks, sitting down next to me.

“Nothing.” I quickly gather up the papers and put them back in the envelope. “Just some stuff from work.”

She stares at me for a minute before asking, “Are you ok?”

“Yeah,” I lie. “Everything’s great.”

“So, don’t get mad, but I went to talk to Billy today.”

I try to sound as casual as possible when I ask, “What did he say?” I don’t want to tell her about everything that happened last night. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.

“He told me that he didn’t mean to hurt you.”

I don’t say anything. I know better than to make excuses for him and what he did last night, but I still know that Billy would have never done that unless there was something wrong with him.

“What did he do?”

“He broke up with me,” I say quietly.

“What?” Kennedy cries. “Why?”

“I don’t know. He called me at one in the morning and asked if he could come over. We talked outside for a few minutes and he broke up with me.” It’s technically not a lie. That’s what happened, there’s just certain parts I left out because I know that Kennedy would flip out if she knew the whole story. Then I say what’s been bothering me all day. “It came out of nowhere, too. I mean, everything was fine at the pool yesterday.”

“I’m sorry.”

“He was acting so weird last night.”

“And that’s all that happened?” She asks me.

I nod.

“But he said-”

“I know. I guess he meant when he broke up with me. Getting dumped isn’t a great feeling, you know.” Then, hoping that maybe Kennedy got more information out of Billy than I did, I ask, “Is that all he said?”

She shrugs. “Pretty much.”

I look at her. “What else did he say?”

“Just a bunch of weird stuff that didn’t make any sense.” She hesitates before telling me, “I think he’s on drugs, Vivi.”

“I know. I asked him about it last night, but he wouldn’t tell me anything.” I can’t stop my voice from breaking when I go on, “Something’s wrong with him. I want to help, but I don’t know how. I don’t even know _what’s_ wrong with him.”

“Would telling his dad help?”

“That’s not an option. His dad is…” I trail off, trying to figure out how to put it. Finally, I settle on, “His dad is awful. Telling him about something like this would only make things a million times worse.”

“I’ll help you figure out what’s going on. I promise.”

“Thank you,” I say. “I know I don’t say it enough, but you seriously are the best cousin I could ask for.”

Kennedy hugs me. “Anything for my favorite cousin.”


	6. Chapter 6

_July 1, 1985_

My phone starts ringing at six o’clock on Monday morning. I groan as I roll over and pick it up. “Hello?”

"Were you with Billy last night?" Max asks.

I laugh bitterly. "No. He broke up with me the other night."

Max doesn't respond.

"Is there a reason you're asking?" I’m not sure why she would be calling me so early just to ask that.

I can hear someone say something to Max, who tells me, "El wants you to know that there’s more to life than stupid boys.”

I laugh. “Don’t worry, I know.”

“She only found out yesterday,” Max explains. “She dumped Mike.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“I need to hear about that later,” I say. “But why are you calling me so early just to ask if I was with Billy?”

Again, Max doesn’t answer my question. Instead, she asks, “Can you pick us up at El’s and take us back to my house? We’ll explain in the car.”

"Right now?" It’s so early, and today is my day off. I don’t want to do anything that isn’t absolutely necessary.

"Yeah. It's kind of important. It’s about Billy.”

“What is it?”

"Pick us up and we'll explain in the car."

I sigh. "Fine. I'll see you guys in a few minutes.”

I pick up El and Max, and they spend the drive telling me that last night when El was spying on people in the Void, she saw Billy doing something to a girl. “She was scared,” El tells me.

“You’re sure she was scared?” I ask.

“She was screaming. And they were _not_ happy screams.”

I look at Max. “Happy screams? Really?”

She just shrugs.

I turn back to El as I say, “I don’t think he was hurting her.”

“Vivian, she was scared.” El sounds like she’s getting frustrated. “I heard-”

“Yeah, I get that. But…” I bite my lip, trying to figure out how to explain this to El, who is more naive than most fourteen year olds.

"Please don't say anything that's going to scar me for life,” Max says quickly.

I ignore Max and park the car as I say, “None of that really matters. We’re here now, so we might as well check it out.” Then El will see that nothing is wrong, and I’ll be free to waste the rest of my day feeling sorry for myself over Billy breaking up with me and apparently moving on ridiculously fast.

But the more I think about how he’d been on Saturday night, the more I start to wonder if El is telling the truth.

Max looks at me and studies my face before asking, “What’s wrong?”

“On Saturday night-”

She cuts me off. “Again, I don’t want to be scarred for life.”

I shake my head. “It’s not anything like that. But Billy… He tried to hurt me.”

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I’m not, but that’s not the point right now. “But something’s going on with him. What if El really did see him hurting someone?”

“I don’t know,” Max says slowly.

“Look, I hope I’m wrong. I don’t want to think that he’s capable of anything bad, but you didn’t see him with me on Saturday. He wasn’t himself."

As Max unlocks the front door, she says, "I just hope I don’t see anything that's going to scar me for life."

I tell her, "If El’s right about this, there’s a chance that we’re all about to be scarred for life.”

Billy isn’t home, so we search his room for anything incriminating. We don’t find anything, but none of us are really sure what we’re supposed to be looking for.

“What about the bathroom?” El asks.

Max shrugs. “We can check, but I seriously don’t think we’re going to find anything.”

As El goes into the bathroom, Max looks back at me and I can tell that she’s thinking this was a wasted trip.

“Max,” El says. “Vivian.”

We go into the bathroom, where El is standing over the tub, where there’s a bunch of melted ice packs floating in the water.

“It’s just ice,” Max says. “It’s probably for his muscles. He works out like a maniac.”

El looks at me.

“What?” I ask.

“I saw someone on tv use ice when they hid a person. A dead one.”

Max turns to me. “Well?”

I sigh. “Really, guys?”

They stare at me in silence.

I bite my lip before admitting, “I guess that ice could be used to slow down the decomposition process.”

Max and El share a look.

“But this isn’t nearly enough ice to do that,” I tell them. “I don’t know why we’re acting like he might have actually killed someone.” I look at Max. “Please tell me that you know he didn’t do anything.”

“Well,” She says slowly. "You did say he tried to hurt you on Saturday night."

I don't have an argument for that.

"And we were both there for his fight with Steve."

I shake my head. "I know that Billy has issues with violence, but he wouldn't _kill_ someone." But then I think about Saturday night again, and I don't know if I'm trying to convince Max or myself.

"Vivian, I know that you love him, but you're the one who said he hasn't been himself."

"Guys," El says quietly.

We both turn to her. She's staring at the cabinet doors. One of the doors looks like it’s smeared with blood.

Again, I think of Saturday night. I remember thinking that it looked like Billy had blood on him. And he never told me where he was during that five hour-gap between the crash and him showing up at my house.

El opens the cabinet and pulls the trashcan out from under the sink. She pulls the fanny pack that all the lifeguards at the pool have out of the trashcan. This one is covered in rhinestones. Then she pulls out a blood-covered whistle.

None of us say anything as we stare at each other.

We need to find Billy.


	7. Chapter 7

The most obvious place for us to start our search is the pool. That’s where Billy works, and since there’s only one community pool in Hawkins, it’s safe to assume that whoever the fanny pack and whistle belong to works there as well.

…Or worked, as Max pointed out earlier. But I’m trying to stay positive.

The pool doesn’t open for a while, so we’re at my house right now, where I’m making a lot of pancakes. It’s helping me keep my mind off of whatever we’re dealing with right now. This is a lot, and I don’t know what to do.

“So, even if we find Billy, what are we going to do?” Max asks me. “It’s not like we can just walk up to him and ask him if he killed somebody.”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet,” I admit.

“And what about the girl El saw him with?”

“I don’t know.” I can’t stop thinking about the blood. The blood on the cabinet and on that whistle. There was a lot of it, and I have no doubt that something horrible happened.

On the way back here, I told Max and El about what happened on Saturday night. I told them that I think Billy might have had blood on him. But since El saw Billy last night, that would mean that the blood on him Saturday night would be from someone else.

That’s another thing I don’t want to think about right now.

We’d left the whistle where we found it simply because we didn’t know what else to do with it. But El insisted on bringing the fanny pack with us, and now she’s sitting at my kitchen table, staring at the fanny pack with a look on her face that I can’t read.

“Well, you better figure something out soon,” Max tells me.

I give her a look as I say, “You and El can help me come up with a plan, you know. You two are the ones who got me involved.”

“He’s your boyfriend,” Max argues.

_“Ex-_ boyfriend,” I correct. “Besides, he’s your stepbrother.”

“Yeah, and he hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you.”

“You don’t have to lie, Vivian. He’s spent years telling me how much he hates me. Besides, it’s not just him we’re looking for,” Max reminds me. “We still don’t know what happened to the girl he was with.”

She has a point there, and when I look at El and the fanny pack, I get an idea. “We keep saying that we have to find Billy, but I think that first, we should find out if anyone at the pool knows who that belongs to.”

“Then what?”

“Well, if someone can tell us whose it is, then maybe we can try to find the girl. Maybe this is some big misunderstanding and she’s perfectly fine.” I don’t believe that’s what’s going to happen, but it’s nicer to think about than the alternative.

“And if she’s not?”

I sigh, and I can’t help the irritation that creeps into my voice as I say, “I told you, I haven’t figured that out yet.”

“I’m sorry,” Max tells me. “I just wish that we had a more solid plan.”

“So do I.” But we have no idea what’s going on, and that makes it harder to come up with a plan.

By the time we get to the pool, it’s pouring rain. Most people are leaving the pool as Max, El, and I walk through the parking lot.

“Excuse me?” I say as we approach the front office.

“No one in the pool until fifteen minutes after the last lightning strike,” The guy says, not bothering to look up from his magazine. “If you want to get electrocuted, go climb a tree.”

“We’re not here to swim,” Max says. She makes a face as she adds, “Or get electrocuted.”

The guy doesn’t respond as he turns a page in his magazine. But when I lean over the counter and take it from him, he cries, “Hey!”

“Sorry,” I say flatly. “But do you think you can pay attention for like, five seconds?”

He sighs. “What do you girls want?”

“We were wondering if this belongs to anyone here?” Max asks, holding up the fanny pack.

“Oh yeah,” He says after a second. “That’s Heather’s.”

Max, El, and I look at each other. We have a name.

“I’ll get it back to her,” He tells us.

“We could give it back ourselves,” I suggest.

“You could,” He says slowly. “But she’s not here. She bailed on me today.”

The three of us glance at each other again. _That_ is not a good sign.

The guy stares at us. “What? You girls want a reward or something?”

El wanders off, looking at something behind us.

“No,” Max answers. “We’re just good samaritans.”

“Well, like I said.” The guy shrugs. “She’s not here.”

Max rolls her eyes before following El, clearly done with this conversation.

“Thanks,” I tell the guy drily. I give him his magazine, grab the fanny pack, and follow Max and El. They’re looking at the pictures of the lifeguards on the board. El is pointing at one.

Max reads the name underneath. “Heather.”

I recognize the girl as Heather Holloway. She’s in my grade, and we did a project together when we were sophomores.

“Do you think you can find her?” Max asks El.

El nods. She grabs the picture and we head into the women’s locker room. “Turn on the showers,” El tells me. “All of them.”

I do that while Max and El put black duct tape over a pair of goggles so that it will be dark enough for El to do whatever she does in the Void. I’ve asked her to explain it to me a million times, but I still don’t understand much besides the basics.

Then the three of us sit in silence for a few minutes before Max asks El if she sees anything.

“A door,” El answers. “A red door.”

Max and I look at each other. A red door could be anywhere.

Another few minutes pass and El whips off the goggles, looking horrified.

“What happened?” Max asks.

Whatever El saw, it’s obviously something bad. She puts her head in her hands.

“Did you find her?” I ask.

El looks up. “Something’s wrong. She saw me. She asked for help. Then something… took her.”

“Took her?”

“The bathtub disappeared and she was pulled under the ground. I could see her, but I couldn’t help her.”

“She was in a tub?” Max asks.

El nods but doesn’t elaborate.

I draw in a deep breath, dreading the answer to my question. “Was there ice in the tub?”

El looks at me. “Yes.”

Max and I look at each other again, but neither of us say anything. I don’t think either of us knows what to say.

What are we dealing with here? What is Billy doing to Heather? What is he going to do?

The three of us spend all day at my house, trying to figure out what to do.

I’m still trying to understand why Billy went after Heather. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt Heather, so why would Billy?

El has tried a few times to find both Billy and Heather, but she hasn’t been successful in any of her attempts.

“Has that ever happened before?” Max asks.

El shakes her head.

“And no one has ever seen you in the Void?” I ask. “Or went under the ground like Heather did?”

“Mike sensed me once,” El answers. “But he was trying to contact me. Billy doesn’t even know me.”

“And the thing with Heather?”

El shakes her head again. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“Should we tell someone?” Max asks.

“Tell who? Tell them what?” I respond. “We don’t know anything. Not really. We don’t even know where Billy and Heather are. Besides that, all the information we have is circumstantial. And we can’t tell anyone what we know without exposing El’s powers.” I don’t mention that no one would believe us if we did explain her powers.

“Should we try going to Heather’s house?” Max asks me. “You said you know where she lives.”

“I do, but El saw a red door. Heather’s house doesn’t have a red door.”

“When was the last time you were at her house?”

I shrug. “A year and a half ago? Maybe two years?”

Max gives me a pointed look. “People can paint their doors, you know.”

Well, that was a huge oversight on my part. I get up and grab my keys. “Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to say that I posted the first chapter of Wild Child, which is season three of Stranger Things told from Kennedy's POV! I have it marked as part of this series, so you can find it by going to the series page, or you can find it on my profile.


	8. Chapter 8

Heather lives in a nearby neighborhood, so the drive only takes a few minutes. I pull over across the street from Heather’s house. Their front door is red.

El and Max are sitting together in the backseat, and Max asks El, “Is this it?”

I turn around in time to see El nod. We get out and head toward the front door. I’m about to knock, but El unlocks the door and opens it with her mind.

“So, we’re breaking and entering now?” I ask.

El doesn’t respond, but Max is looking at me in a way that tells me that she thinks this is a bad idea, too.

We hear a woman laughing, and we follow the sound into the dining room.

Billy is sitting at the dining room table with Heather’s parents, and everything looks perfectly normal. This isn’t what I was expecting. It isn’t what any of us were expecting.

“Max,” Billy says.

Max and I share a look. I don’t think either of us have ever heard Billy sound so happy to see his stepsister.

I can’t get myself to say anything. I’m in some weird state between shock and confusion.

Max is looking at me, and when she realizes that I’m not going to say anything, she starts talking. “We didn’t mean to barge in. We tried knocking, but we figured you didn’t hear us over the storm.”

The three of them are watching the three of us, and something about this whole situation feels very wrong. Especially the way Billy is looking at El, who’s standing on my right.

Mr. Holloway points at me. “You’re Victor’s girl, aren’t you?”

I nod. “Yes, sir. Vivian.”

“Vivian, right.” He looks at El and Max as he adds, “But I’m not sure who these other two people dripping all over my living room are.”

Billy laughs. “I’m sorry. Janet, Tom, this is my sister Maxine.” He gets up and walks over to the three of us. “What on earth are you doing here? Is something wrong?”

“We just wanted to make sure everything is ok,” Max says slowly.

“Ok? Why wouldn’t everything be ok?”

Max looks at me again, looking just as confused as I feel.

I don’t have a good feeling about whatever is going on here, and it has nothing to do with the fact that my ex-boyfriend of two days is having dinner with another girl’s parents.

Speaking of the other girl… Where _is_ Heather?

That’s when El, who is glaring at Billy, asks, “Where is she?”

Billy turns to El, and a look of hate flashes across his face. But all he says is, “I’m sorry, where is who?”

Before any of us can say anything, Heather comes out of the kitchen, holding a baking sheet. “They’re a little burnt, I’m sorry.” She stops when she sees us, and now she’s looking at El weird, too.

“Heather!” Billy says. “This is my sister Maxine. And you know Vivian, right?” Then he focuses on El. “I’m sorry, I did not quite catch your name.”

For some reason, I don’t want El to tell Billy her name. There’s no logical reason for it, but something is telling me to take Max and El and get the hell out of here.

Billy and Heather are both watching El intensely as she keeps glaring at Billy. “El,” She answers after a moment.

Billy nods. “El.” I don’t like the way he says her name. It’s creepy. He stares at her, almost looking like he wants to kill her, as he asks, “Now, what were you saying, El? You were looking for somebody?”

El looks at Heather, who is still watching her in a very creepy way. El stutters, “I- I saw-”

“Your manager,” Max cuts in. “At the pool.” She looks at me for help.

I nod and force myself to finally speak. “Yeah, right. Your manager said you guys didn’t come into work. We were worried.”

“Heather wasn’t feeling too hot today,” Billy explains. “So we took the day off to nurse her back to health.”

Without calling in? I’d believe it if it was just Billy we were talking about, but Heather is like me. She wouldn’t stay home from work without calling in sick. And looking at Heather now, she doesn’t look sick. She’s definitely acting weird, but physically, she seems fine.

Billy turns to Heather and asks, “But you’re feeling just fine now, aren’t you?”

I watch Billy and the way he’s looking at Heather, talking to her. It almost seems like he’s threatening her. From the way El is still watching him, I have the feeling she notices it too.

Heather nods. “I’m feeling so much better.” Then she asks, “Would you girls like a cookie? They’re fresh from the oven.”

Before Max or El can give an answer, I grab their hands and say, “We have to go. We’re sorry for bothering you.”

“You should stay,” Heather tells us. “All of you.”

Heather’s mom nods. “The storm is really bad out there.”

Billy is still looking at El as he says, “You should all stay. Really.”

Again, I answer for all three of us. “We can’t. We really have to go.”

The girls don’t argue and let me lead them toward the front door. I’m opening the door when I feel a hand on my lower back. When I turn around, Billy is standing behind me. I hand Max my keys. “Wait in the car.”

Billy closes the front door and stands on the front step with me, watching Max and El walk down to the street. Once they’re out of hearing range, he turns to me and asks in a low voice, “What are you doing here, Vivian?”

I stare at him. After everything that happened on Saturday night, _that’s_ all he has to say? “You know, if you wanted to break up and see someone else, all you had to do was tell me,” I say flatly. “You didn't have to try to kill me."

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Billy is threatening me. The warning in his tone makes that clear enough. I have to take a breath before I feel like I can respond in a steady voice. “We were just making sure you didn’t graduate from assault to murder in the past couple of days.”

“What are you talking about?”

"We found the fanny pack and the whistle covered in blood.”

“Well, you just saw for yourself that Heather hasn’t been murdered.”

He’s right. She looks fine, even if she is acting weird. Still… “Then where did all that blood come from?”

Billy puts his hand on my arm. I can’t help flinching at how cold he is. “Why don’t I come by your place later? I’ll explain everything then.”

I shake my head. “No.”

Billy sounds surprised when he repeats, “No?”

“Have you completely forgotten about Saturday night?”

“It wasn’t that big of a deal. You’re being dramatic.”

He cannot be serious right now. But the longer I study his face, searching for any sign that this is some fucked up joke, the more serious he seems. All I can ask is, "Are you fucking insane?"

His only response is, “I’ll come by later.”

“Don’t. My dad has a gun, and I know where the key to the safe is.”

“That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?”

“No,” I say honestly. “With the way you’re acting right now, I don’t.”

“You’re threatening to shoot your boyfriend,” He argues.

_“Ex-_ boyfriend.”

Billy glares at me as he says, “You don’t even know how to use a gun.”

“I’m sure I could figure it out.” Truth be told, I'm not sure if I could shoot _anyone_ even if I had to. But I'm hoping that the threat is enough to get Billy to listen to me. Billy doesn’t say anything as I walk back to my car. When I open the door, he’s still on the porch, watching us.

“Did he tell you anything?” Max asks me.

“Nothing important.”

“What was going on in there?” El asks.

“I don’t know. I’m just glad we’re leaving.”

It’s almost midnight when my phone starts ringing. I look up from my book and pick up the phone. “Hello?”

“Viv.” It’s Billy. And he almost sounds normal.

Still, I tell him, “I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Don’t hang up,” He says quickly. “Please. It's not what you think. None of it is."

"If you're talking about whatever is going on between you and Heather, I don't care. You broke up with me, you can do whatever you want." That’s a lie. I do care. It hurts to know that he’s moved on so fast, but we aren’t together anymore. What I think doesn’t matter. “Just please tell me that you at least had the decency to wait until after you broke up with me before you guys did anything."

"Viv-"

"You know what? Don't tell me. I don't want to know." I really don't. I'd rather remain in denial.

"You think that's what's going on? You think I got in an accident and then went out with another girl that same night?"

"Or you went out with her before crashing your car."

"Do you seriously think I'd cheat on you?"

"What else am I supposed to think?" I snap. “Look at everything that happened on Saturday night. Then tonight you were having dinner at another girl's house. With her parents. I don't know what you expect me to think."

"I expect my girlfriend to know that I'm not cheating on her."

"I'm not your girlfriend anymore," I remind him. "You're the one who wanted it that way."

“I didn’t want to break up with you.”

I don’t say anything. I don’t understand anything that’s going on here, and I feel like things keep getting even more confusing.

Billy almost sounds like he’s pleading with me when he says, “I love you, Viv. The last thing I would ever want to do is hurt you.”

He sounds like he means it. The Billy I know would mean it. “Then what happened on Saturday night?”

"I’m doing you a favor,” He says quietly. “Things will be better for you this way.”

Billy has said a few times that he’s worried about dragging me down, and I hate it. I hate that he thinks so little of himself. “No,” I say. “If this is about your whole thing with not being good enough, it’s not true. I love you.”

“It’s not about that, Viv.”

“Then what is it about?”

He doesn’t say anything.

“Billy, just tell me what’s going on. Please.” I hate how desperate I sound, but something is obviously wrong and I want to help. Even if Billy doesn’t want to be with me, I still want to help him.

He still doesn’t say anything, and I’m expecting him to hang up on me. But then he asks, “Do you remember in November when you wouldn’t tell me what was happening when I found you at the Byers house?”

“What?” Why is he bringing this up now?

“Do you remember when you told me that I needed to trust you?”

“That was different.”

“The point is, I trusted you.”

“Billy-”

“I trusted you, and I need you to trust me when I tell you that you can’t get involved in this. I know you want to help me, Viv, and I appreciate it. I can’t even begin to tell you how much you mean to me, but you need to stay away from me.”

I can’t believe that he won’t even tell me why he’s breaking up with me. Arguing would be pointless, though. I know that he’s told me the most he’s going to. “Fine,” I say after a moment. “Then you need to stay away from me. And that means that you need to stop calling me, too.” Then I hang up.

Billy doesn’t try calling me again.


	9. Chapter 9

_July 2, 1985_

Since I forgot to set my alarm last night, I wake up late on Tuesday morning. I quickly get dressed and I’m halfway down the stairs when the phone in my room starts ringing. I don’t even stop to debate whether I should answer it. I don’t have time. Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter right now. Not when I’m already so late for work.

I’m halfway to work when, for the first time since Sunday, I remember those documents. El and Max kept me so busy yesterday that I completely forgot about the documents I hid in my closet.

I know that Mayor Kine and my dad are doing something they shouldn’t be, but until I figure out what to do about it, it seems like pretending I don’t know anything is the best move.

I’ve been at work for a while and I’m in the middle of organizing one of the filing cabinets when Hopper and Mrs. Byers walk in.

“Hey Candace,” Hopper says. “Is he in?”

“Yes, he’s in,” Candace says. “But he’s busy right now.”

Hopper walks into Kline’s office.

She stands up. “You can’t go in-” She’s cut off by Hopper slamming the door.

I hear the lock click as Mrs. Byers says, “You might want to sit down.”

She’s not talking to me, but I sit down in one of the chairs in front of Candace’s desk. “Hi, Mrs. Byers,” I say. “It’s been a while.”

“It has. How are things going?”

“Things are good.” They’re not, but I don’t have the time or energy to go into all that right now. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Hopper needs to ask Kline about something.”

“Good luck with that,” I say under my breath. Kline doesn’t cooperate with anyone. I’ve never met someone who seems to enjoy being so difficult.

Mrs. Byers shrugs. “I’m sure Hop will figure something out.”

That’s when something, or someone, inside Kline’s office hits the door. “My nose!” He yells. “You broke my goddamn nose!”

Candace gets up. “Larry?” She calls, walking toward the door.

I figure that Candace has this covered, and either way, I’m not too worried about what happens to the mayor. I turn back to Mrs. Byers. “What are you guys trying to find out? Maybe I can help.”

More yelling comes from Mayor Kline’s office, and Candace runs back behind the desk, reaching for the phone.

Mrs. Byers yanks the cord out of the phone and asks, “Who are you calling?” She gestures toward the door. “The police?”

Candace just stares at her in shock.

Mrs. Byers turns back to me and explains, “We’re looking for someone we think Kline knows.”

“I work here five days a week,” I say. “Maybe I’ve seen them.”

“Hopper said he saw you here on Sunday. Maybe you have seen this guy. Hopper said he was a real big guy who drove a motorcycle.”

I’m pretty sure she means Grigori. “I saw him. His name is Grigori.”

Before Mrs. Byers can respond, Hopper shoves the mayor, who’s wearing handcuffs, out of the office.

“Larry?” Candace asks. “Are you ok?”

I look at him. His nose looks like it really might be broken.

“He’s all right,” Hopper says. “He’s just got a boo-boo, right Larry?”

They walk out, and Mrs. Byers looks at me. “Maybe you should come,” She says slowly. “It sounds like you might know a bit about what’s going on here.”

“I think I might.” I’m not sure what Mrs. Byers and Hopper were doing, exactly, but it sounds like whatever they’re dealing with might be connected to what I know.

Mrs. Byers and I follow Hopper out to the Blazer, where he puts Mayor Kline in the backseat. I get in next to Kline, who asks me, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m interested to see how this turns out. I want to know if this has anything to do with those documents I picked up for you the other day.”

“Documents?” Mrs. Byers turns around to face us. “What documents?”

“I’ll explain later.”

“Did you read them?” Kline asks me.

“I thought it was strange that you were so insistent about me not reading them. I hadn’t been planning to, but after that?” I shrug. “I just couldn’t help myself.”

“You are all playing a very dangerous game,” He warns us.

I don’t say anything. I already knew that. I guess it’s a good thing my dad taught me how to win dangerous games.

We go to Mayor Kline’s house, where he’s keeping some kind of documents Hopper wants to take a look at. We’re standing in the front hall of Kline’s house, and Hopper and I are staring down at the zebra rug on the floor. “Nice rug,” Hopper says drily. “You kill that yourself?”

“That’s not real,” Kline answers as we all head up the stairs.

“No shit!”

In the master bedroom, Kline opens a safe and hands Hopper a stack of papers held together by a rubber band. Hopper flips through them, and Mrs. Byers takes a few of the documents from him.

Reading over her shoulder, I realize that these are the documents I’d picked up from my dad’s office.

Mrs. Byers goes into the hallway, still staring at one of the documents.

Hopper looks up from the papers and asks Kline, “You keep these in a safe in your bedroom? Why? Blackmail?”

“Protection.”

“Protection?” Hopper repeats.

“These people are bad news, Jim.”

“Hopper,” Mrs. Byers calls from the hallway.

Hopper lets go of the rubber band, and it hits the mayor in the face.

I laugh, and Kline glares at me. “You’re fired, by the way.”

“Do you seriously think I’d want to keep working for you after all this?” I reply.

“Watch him,” Hopper tells me over his shoulder.

“So, what do the Russians want with us?” I ask Kline.

“I don’t know.”

“You expect me to believe that?” When he doesn’t answer, I go on, “If that’s true, then this is just about the money, right? You don’t care about what this means for _anyone_ in Hawkins?”

“And you do?”

“I have a problem with corruption,” I answer with a shrug.

Before Kline can respond, Hopper comes back into the master bedroom. “Time to go.”

Mayor Kline and I both stand up.

“Not you,” Hopper tells Kline. “Although…” He grabs the mayor and leads him to the bed, where he unlocks one of the handcuffs. He puts it through one of the slats on the headboard before putting it back on Kline’s wrist.

Normally I’d have a bunch of inappropriate jokes going through my head right now. But there is nothing normal about this situation, and I slowly say, “This feels illegal.”

“Of course it is,” Kline cries. “You’re kidnapping me!”

“We’re leaving you in your own home,” Hopper tells him.

As much as I can’t stand Kline, I have to agree with his kidnapping statement. “I don’t want to get arrested for kidnapping the mayor,” I tell Hopper.

“You can’t leave me like this!” Kline yells as I follow Hopper out of the room.

“First of all,” Hopper says as we go downstairs. “He’s not going to tell anyone about this. With the things that we already know, it’s too much of a risk for him to tell anyone about this. And even if we do get in trouble, _you_ have nothing to worry about. You’re dad’s a lawyer. He’ll get you out of any trouble.”

“Yeah, speaking of my dad…” I trail off, not sure what to say.

Hopper looks at me. “What?”

“He’s part of this.”

“Are you sure?”

I nod. “I’ll explain more in the car, but all those papers in the safe? I got them from my dad’s office on Sunday. I made copies of them just because I didn’t know what else to do.”

“Who else knows about all this?”

“I haven’t told anyone.”

As we walk out the front door, I can hear Kline shouting, “You can’t do this to me!”

Mrs. Byers is in the car. When we get in, she asks, “Where’s Larry?”

“Handcuffed to the bed,” I answer.

She looks at Hopper. “What?”

“We can’t give him the chance to call anyone from Starcourt,” Hopper tells her. “Now, which property is closest?”


	10. Chapter 10

The three of us spend all day going to different properties that the owners of Starcourt Mall had bought in Hawkins. So far all of them have looked like no one’s been to them in months, if not years.

On the way to the first house, Mrs. Byers told me that ever since the power went out last Friday, she keeps finding magnets that have lost their magnetism. Almost like something has been disrupting the electromagnetic field in Hawkins. Then, when she and Hopper went to investigate at Hawkins Lab last night, even though they didn’t find anything, someone else was there and attacked Hopper. From what they told me and I told them, we’re all in agreement that Girgori is the guy who attacked Hopper.

By the time we get to the last property, Hess Farm, it’s dark outside. There’s a car in front of this house. A van that says ‘Lynx Transportation’.

“Someone’s home,” Hopper mumbles as we pull up.

We get out of the car and I ask, “Do you guys hear that?”

There’s a low rumbling coming from somewhere inside the house. The house looks the same as all the others. It looks like it was abandoned a long time ago. We can’t find anyone in the house, but that sound is obviously coming from somewhere in here.

We’re in one of the bedrooms when Mrs. Byers suddenly gets on the floor.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

She shushes me, her ear against the floor. She stands up and says, “Help me lift the bed up.”

It’s a murphy bed. We lift it up. Underneath is a set of stairs leading into a basement. The sound is much louder now and there’s an orange light coming from somewhere down there.

Hopper goes down the stairs first, holding his gun in front of him.

Two men are kneeling in front of some big machine in the basement.

“Hey dipshits,” Hopper says.

They drop their tools, looking at us.

“Hawkins PD. Put your hands where I can see them.”

The two men start speaking, but it isn’t in English. It sounds like they’re speaking in Russian.

“English,” Hopper says. “Do you speak English?”

The guy in the glasses says something to Hopper, and now I’m sure that he’s speaking Russian.

“I can’t understand you,” Hopper tells him.

This can’t be a coincidence. Starcourt is owned by Russians and these Russian guys are here, at a place owned by the same people who own Starcourt. Obviously, this is all connected, even if we don’t know how yet.

“Hopper!” Mrs. Byers shouts.

We’re all quiet as she points at the ceiling. Someone is walking around in the house above us.

Hopper grabs the set of handcuffs that were previously in the glove compartment of his Blazer. He puts one of the cuffs on the guy with glasses and tells Mrs. Byers and me, “Go behind that machine over there and see if there’s something to cuff him to. And you two stay out of sight.”

There’s a metal bar attached to the machine Mrs. Byers and I are hiding behind, and we cuff the surprisingly cooperative Russian to the machine. We can hear Hopper beating the other guy up, and he comes around the machine as we hear the bed up above being lifted. Footsteps come down the stairs and into the basement.

A few seconds pass before Hopper goes out from behind the machine. “Hawkins Chief of Police,” He says. “Drop your weapon.”

“No.” This guy is Russian, too, but he’s speaking English.

When the Russian Mrs. Byers and I are hiding with hears the man’s voice, he looks nervous.

“Drop your weapon,” Hopper demands.

“Or what?”

“Or what?” Hopper repeats. I hear the click of a gun as he says, “Or I’ll blow a hole through that thick skull of yours. How ‘bout that?”

“You won’t do that,” The Russian guy says.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re a policeman. Policemen here have rules.”

“You wanna test that theory?” Hopper asks. “I’m gonna give you to the count of three to drop your weapon.”

It’s obvious to me that this guy isn’t going to listen.

Still, Hopper counts, “One.”

Nothing.

“Two.”

Nothing.

“Three.”

Someone starts shooting. But there are so many gunshots so rapidly that I know it isn’t Hopper’s gun going off. Bullets are hitting the walls and ceiling, and there’s nowhere Mrs. Byers and I can hide. As much as I don’t want to get shot, I’m glad that someone is still shooting. As long as either of them are shooting, it means that Hopper is still alive.

Hopper’s gun slides across the floor and lands a few feet away from Mrs. Byers and me. Mrs. Byers crawls forward and grabs it. The shooting stops for a moment and Mrs. Byers goes out from behind the machine. “Hopper!” She shouts.

I hear something hit the floor a moment before Hopper says, “Shit.”

“What happened?” I ask when she sits back down next to me.

“I overthrew.”

A second later, Hopper comes behind the machine. He unlocks the Russian guy’s cuff from the machine and puts it on his own wrist. “All right, Smirnoff,” He says. “You’re coming with us.”

Mrs. Byers and I run up the stairs first with Hopper and our newest kidnapping victim behind us.

Hopper puts the bed down and shoves a dresser on top of it as a spray of bullets comes up through the bed.

We’re outside when Hopper throws his keys to Mrs. Byers, saying, “Drive.”

Mrs. Byers drops the keys.

“Quit screwing around, Joyce!” Hopper shouts.

I’m too busy hoping we aren’t about to die to point out that he hadn’t given her much warning before throwing the keys. The Blazer is unlocked, and I get in as Mrs. Byers picks the keys up off the ground.

“Joyce!” Hopper yells from the backseat. “Drive!”

“I’m trying,” She tells him as she puts the keys in the ignition.

Hopper is screaming now as he says, “Joyce! Drive!”

When the Russian guy comes out of the house and starts shooting at us, I realize that it was Grigori.

Whatever my dad and Mayor Kline are doing, Hopper, Mrs. Byers, and I are clearly caught up in it now.


	11. Chapter 11

_July 3, 1985_

We spent the night in Hopper’s Blazer in the middle of the woods. When Grigori was shooting at us, he hit something under the hood. Now the car isn’t working.

As soon as the sun comes up, Hopper starts trying to fix the car. Mrs. Byers and I are sitting on a log, and I turn to our prisoner, who Hopper handcuffed to a tree. “What’s your name?” I ask him.

He only stares at me.

“I don’t think he speaks any English,” Mrs. Byers tells me.

We tried asking him a few questions last night, and he didn’t seem to even understand us.

Still, I ask him, “Do you speak English?”

He shakes his head.

Well, that’s just going to make things even harder.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy can understand us and is just pretending not to. A language barrier seems like the perfect way to avoid telling your captors anything. With this being my second kidnapping in less than twenty-four hours, I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up getting kidnapped one day. Maybe I’ll have to fake a language barrier if that happens.

“We can’t keep calling him Smirnoff,” I say. “That’s mean.”

Hopper sounds annoyed when he reminds me, “He’s a prisoner.”

“He hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“He’s working for Starcourt, and Starcourt is obviously up to no good. He’s guilty by association.”

“What happened to ‘innocent until proven guilty’?”

Hopper doesn’t respond.

“I do think that we need to stop calling him that,” Mrs. Byers tells Hopper.

“Then what should we call him?”

Neither of us answer. I guess we haven’t thought that far ahead.

I glance back at the Russian before telling Hopper, “I don’t think we should keep him handcuffed to a tree like that. It doesn’t look very comfortable.”

“Do you want him to run off?”

“How far is he going to get in handcuffs?”

Hopper sighs and marches over to the Russian. He unlocks the left cuff and drags the guy over to me. Before I can register what’s happening, Hopper puts the cuff on my left wrist. “If you think Smirnoff being cuffed is too much, then you can babysit him.”

“That’s mature,” I mutter.

“Well, I’m the only one around here solving any problems,” Hopper replies as he walks back to the car.

“Ok,” Mrs. Byers says to me. “I think I know how we can get his name.” She turns to the man and points at herself. “I’m Joyce.” She points at me. “Vivian.”

“I don’t think he knows those are names,” I tell her.

But this time he points at himself. “Alexei.”

“That was easier than I expected,” I admit.

That ends up being as far as we get, though.

It takes a while before Hopper finally tells Mrs. Byers to stop trying to ask Alexei questions. Honestly, I have to agree with Hopper. She isn’t getting anywhere, but I still would have put it nicer than, “You two are giving me a headache.”

Mrs. Byers holds up a finger and tells Alexei, “Hold on a second.” She walks over to Hopper. “I am getting somewhere.”

“Really?” Hopper turns to look at her. “And what did you learn?” Before she can respond, he says, “You learned that Smirnoff-”

“Alexei,” She corrects.

“You learned that _Smirnoff_ is Russian and works for Starcourt. Two things we already knew.”

“Thought we knew,” Mrs. Byers argues. “But now we _know_ know.”

Hopper stares at her for a moment before handing her the keys. “Why don’t you do something useful and start the car?”

Alexei watches them argue, then glances at me with a questioning look on his face.

I shrug. “They do this all the time.”

“He can’t understand you,” Hopper reminds me.

I’m not sure why we’re still keeping Alexei prisoner if we can’t get any information out of him, but I keep quiet as I turn back toward the Blazer, where Mrs. Byers is sitting in the driver’s seat, trying to start the car.

It doesn’t start, but the engine makes a weird noise.

Alexei stands up, pulling me with him. “Stop!” He shouts, waving his hands.

“Quiet, Smirnoff,” Hopper snaps.

“Stop!” Alexei says again.

Hopper turns toward us. “I said be quiet,” He tells Alexei. “Do you hear me? Be-”

Behind him, the car starts making a high-pitched noise. “Uh, Hopper?” I say slowly.

He stops talking as the sound gets louder. “Shit.” He turns back toward the car. “Joyce!”

She gets out of the car just before the engine goes up in flames.

Alexei gives Hopper a pointed look and repeats, “Stop.”

Hopper sighs in frustration but doesn’t say anything as he walks off.

Mrs. Byers, Alexei, and I all follow him. “Where are we going?” I ask.

“I know someone in Illinois who speaks Russian. We’re going to get answers from Smirnoff.”

Mrs. Byers begins, “But how-”

“Just give me time to think.”

We’ve been walking for a while when Mrs. Byers and Hopper start arguing. Again.

Alexei and I keep walking, and I mutter, “This is the worst. At least you can’t understand them. I don’t think you can, anyway. They’re not even arguing about anything important. And I’m sick of walking. I had to do this in November, too. An unexpected walk through the woods. It sucked in November and it sucks this time. Actually, it’s worse this time because I’m wearing a skirt. When I got dressed for work yesterday, I didn’t realize that I was going to kidnap two people, which I’m sorry about by the way, then take a walk through the woods with absolutely no plan. It'd be nice if before someone drags me through the woods, they let me know beforehand so I can put on clothes that make it less difficult for once."

Suddenly, Alexei starts running, dragging me along with him.

“Hey, Smirnoff,” Hopper shouts. “Get back here.”

“Can you slow down?” I whine. I don’t think he’s trying to kidnap me. He’s been mostly cooperative so far, and I don’t think he’s going to do anything stupid at this point. But I would still prefer to not be running right now.

Alexei doesn’t stop until we’re at the edge of the woods. There’s a 7-11 across the street and Alexei is happily shouting something in Russian.

Hopper and Mrs. Byers come up behind us and I ask, “Can we please go in?”

“Let’s go.”

Inside the 7-11, we go straight to the drinks. Hopper grabs two Cokes and opens them, handing one to Alexei and one to me. I don’t like Coke, but at that moment I don’t have the energy, or hydration, to say anything about it.

The four of us spend a long moment drinking our sodas before the cashier asks us, “Are you going to pay for those?”

Hopper glares at him and burps in response. Then he turns to me and says, “You’re in charge of food. Get enough to last three days.”

“Three days? You think we’re going to be gone for that long?”

“I hope not, but I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

I lead Alexei to the food aisle, which is pretty much nothing but junk food. I start grabbing random bags of chips, trying to hold all of them in one arm. Are we seriously going to be gone for three days? And what’s going to happen if we’re gone for longer than three days?

Alexei looks at something behind me and says, “Slurpee.”

I turn around and see the Slurpee machine behind me. “You like Slurpees?” I ask him.

He leads me to the machine, where he puts his hand under and motions for me to pull the lever. I roll my eyes even as I pull the lever. When I do, cherry-flavored Slurpee comes out. Hopper, who is talking to the cashier, glances at us as Alexei puts his Slurpee-filled hand to his mouth.

“Can we get Slurpees?” I ask.

He closes his eyes for a long moment, looking like he’s trying not to yell at us. “Fine.”

Alexei and I both get cherry Slurpees, and when I put all the food we got on the counter, Hopper asks me, “Really?”

“What?”

“This is all junk food.”

“It’s a gas station. What did you expect?”

Hopper sighs and turns to the cashier. He sounds exhausted when he says, “Just ring me up.”


	12. Chapter 12

When we come out of the 7-11, I see Mrs. Byers at the payphone.

Hopper doesn’t lead Alexei and me over to her, though. Instead, he leads us toward a man filling up his yellow convertible. “You two keep quiet,” He tells us before opening the door and putting us in the backseat.

The owner of the car looks at us. “Hey!”

Hopper ignores him.

“Hey,” The guy says again. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“No, you ‘hey’!” Hopper says to the guy. He holds up his police badge and tells him, “This is a police emergency and I am commandeering your vehicle. What’s your name?”

The guy sounds confused when he answers, “Tod.”

Hopper takes the gas pump out of the car and puts it away as he repeats, “Tod?”

“Yeah.”

“Tod?”

“Tod.”

I can’t stop myself from asking, “Can we move this conversation along, please?”

Hopper glares at me before telling Tod, “Well, Tod, I know these two don’t look it, but they are two of the world’s most dangerous criminals.”

Tod watches Alexei and me for a moment as I dig through the bag of food and Alexei sips from his Slurpee.

Hopper goes on, “They’re child murderers. They’ve murdered many children.”

“What?” Tod and I ask at the same time.

I don’t want to be labeled as a child murderer. But I know this isn’t the time to argue, so I don’t say anything else.

“They’re true psychopaths. I had to track them over two state lines.”

“What’s going on?” Mrs. Byers asks as she walks over.

Hopper turns to her. “Ah, Detective Byers. Tod here has agreed to lend us his vehicle to transport these two very dangerous criminals.”

Mrs. Byers slides across the front seat, into the passenger seat as she says to Tod, “Yes, very dangerous criminals. Master forgers.”

I’m not sure how Mrs. Byers went from ‘very dangerous’ to forgery, but I do like that better than being a child murderer.

“Uh, child murderers,” Hopper corrects casually.

Mrs. Byers glances at Hopper. “Child murderers?”

Hopper gets in the driver seat as Tod asks, “How do I get my car back?”

“You uh, you can call the station.”

“What station?”

Hopper ignores him and turns up the radio. “I like the sound of that, Tod,” He shouts.

And then we drive off.

We’ve been driving for a few hours when I ask Hopper, “How far away does your friend live?”

“He’s not my friend, he’s an acquaintance. And we’re about halfway there.”

We’re on our way to Illinois. Hopper says he knows someone in Illinois who speaks Russian, so we’re taking Alexei to him.

I have the feeling that this isn’t going to be as easy as Hopper is making it sound.

“Well, I need to call my cousin,” I say. “Kline knows where I live, which means that my cousin could be in danger. I just need to tell her to be careful.”

“I don’t want to stop unless we have to. You can use the phone once we get there.”

I don’t argue. I’m actually glad that I’ll have a few hours to try to figure out what I’m going to say to Kennedy. I want to warn her about what’s going on, but I don’t want her to know too much. It’s not safe for her.

Kennedy, Hopper, Mrs. Byers, and I are all in danger right now, and I kind of feel like it’s my fault. I was helping my dad and Mayor Kline with those papers. But I push that thought out of my head before it becomes the only thing I can think about.

When we finally get to this guy’s place, I’m surprised to see that it isn’t a house, but a warehouse. “Someone lives here?” I ask in disbelief.

“Yes.”

As we get out of the car, Mrs. Byers says, “I thought you said this guy is a journalist.”

“He _was_ a journalist,” Hopper corrects.

“Was?” I repeat.

Hopper doesn’t elaborate, which seems kind of suspicious to me. What are we about to walk into?

We ring the doorbell, and a voice comes through the speaker above it. “Look at the camera.”

Hopper leans toward the speaker.

“Not the speaker,” The voice snaps. “The camera. Above you on the right.”

There’s a security camera up in the corner of the building. Mrs. Byers and I turn to it, and she waves nervously.

“Full names.” The voice says.

Hopper sighs. “Jim Hopper, Joyce Byers, Vivian Weston, Smirnoff.”

“Alexei,” Mrs. Byers corrects.

Hopper sighs again. “Alexei.”

“Surname?” The voice asks.

“I don’t know,” Hopper says sharply.

“Last. Name.”

“Yeah, I said I don’t know. Just open the damn door!”

“Calm down, Hop,” Mrs. Byers tells him.

“Don’t worry,” He says. “This guy is a little eccentric, but he’s completely harmless.”

The door opens, and suddenly the four of us have a shotgun in our faces.


	13. Author's Note

I know everyone probably thought this was an update, and I'm sorry! But I'm posting this on all my stories because I know it's been a while since I've updated most of them, and I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm not abandoning any of my stories.  
I have multiple chronic illnesses, and I was somehow lucky enough to spend most of the year we've been in a world-wide pandemic without too many health issues. Then in October all of my illnesses decided to act up at once, and it got even worse in November. I'm finally starting to feel better (although that could change), so I'm hoping that I'll be able to get back to my writing soon!


	14. Chapter 13

The man holding the gun looks at Alexei. “Name?”

Alexei says something in Russian.

The man smirks before replying in Russian.

I can’t understand them, but it’s clear that they’re not having a friendly conversation.

Then the man glances at Hopper and says, “Hi, Jim.”

“Sir,” I say carefully. “It’s only Wednesday and I’ve already had a very long week. The last thing I feel like dealing with right now is having a gun aimed at my face. So, if you could put it away, that would be great.”

He silently turns and motions for us to follow him. He leads us inside and stops us at the end of the hallway. He gets out some kind of homemade metal detector and starts scanning Alexei with it. He points at me and asks Hopper, “What about this one?”

“She’s good,” Hopper answers.

“Then why are they cuffed together?”

“She’s his babysitter. But is this necessary?”

“Yes. Yes, it is. You have dragged an enemy of the state into my home as carelessly as a child drags in shit on his shoe. And you will let me search him until I am thoroughly satisfied.”

“Uh, Jim?” Mrs. Byers pulls Hopper back into the hallway, where they start bickering.

“So, what’s your name?” I ask the man.

“Murray Bauman.”

When it’s clear that that’s all he’s going to say, I tell him, “I’m Vivian.”

“Vivian Weston.”

“How do you know that?” I ask slowly.

“You did state your names outside a minute ago.” When I don’t say anything, he goes on, “Your name also came up when Barbara Holland’s parents hired me as a private investigator last year. Then when your friends Nancy and Jonathan came to visit me in November, Nancy mentioned that she wanted to tell you the truth about what happened to Barbara.”

“The truth?” I repeat flatly.

“Yes, the tragic chemical leak that killed your friend,” Murray says in a way that tells me he knows it wasn’t a chemical leak.

“The chemical leak,” I say with a nod. “Right.”

Behind me, Mrs. Byers and Hopper are still arguing.

“Children!” Murray shouts at them. “Can you two please take your lover’s quarrel somewhere else?”

I hide a smile as Hopper says, “This? This is _not_ a lover’s quarrel, pal.”

It so is, and Murray knows it. “Oh, spare me.”

Hopper and Mrs. Byers both stumble over their denials.

“Spare me,” Murray shouts again.

Mrs. Byers storms over to him. “What is your problem?” She asks.

“Ma’am, I am trying to concentrate. So, please-”

“No!” Mrs. Byers shouts. “We have been chased, shot at, and almost blown up! We walked for god knows how many miles in the hundred-degree heat and we stole a car, all while being chased by this giant psychopath, so that we could bring him-” She points at Alexei before jabbing Murray in the chest. “-To you. Because somehow you’re the closest person that speaks Russian, which I find hard to believe. But none of that matters, because unfortunately, we’re here. So, put that thing away, stop behaving like a jackass, and ask him what he’s doing that’s making my damn magnets fall off the fridge!”

We all stare at her in silence.

“Please,” She adds as Murray stands there in shock. Then she walks past him, pulling Alexei, and me, along with her.

A few hours later, we’re all sitting in the living room, all growing more and more frustrated. We’re getting nowhere with Alexei, who keeps insisting that the thing we saw him working on at Hess Farm is a generator for Starcourt Mall that stopped working after the power outage last week.

Hopper has been yelling for the past hour, and it seems like it’s only making Alexei cooperate even less, so I say, “Maybe you should stop yelling at him. Maybe if you’re nicer, he’ll be more helpful.”

“We don’t have time to mess around,” He reminds me. “We need answers.”

I want to point that we’re not getting any answers this way, but I know better than to argue. Besides, it’s starting to get dark outside and I know that Kennedy will be getting home soon, if she isn’t home already. I ask Murray, “Can I use your phone, please?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I need to call my cousin. I just need to tell her that I’m not coming home tonight. Trust me, I’m not stupid enough to tell her where I am.”

He sighs. “Fine. But keep it under two minutes and don’t tell her my phone number, either.”

I’m not sure why the two-minute thing matters, but I know better than to tell anyone the phone number of the place I’m staying at when we’re kind of in hiding right now.

I’m still cuffed to Alexei, and I ask Hopper, “Can you unlock us now?”

Hopper gets up, pulling the keys out of his pocket. He unlocks the cuff that’s around my wrist and puts it back on Alexei.

“I don’t think he’s going to run,” I tell Hopper. “We’re nowhere near Hawkins. He has nowhere to go.”

“I’m not taking any chances.”

I don’t say anything before I get up and go into the kitchen. I dial the phone and wait for Kennedy to pick up. It goes to the answering machine, but I’m not too worried. She probably just hasn’t gotten home from work yet.

“Hey, it’s me.” I pause, trying to figure out what to say. I can’t tell Kennedy everything, especially over the phone or in this case, a voice message. I still don’t know exactly what’s going on, anyway. Finally I say, “I’m not going to be home for a few days. I’ll explain everything later, but don’t worry, I’m safe.” For now, at least. I warn her, “Don’t open the door for anyone, ok? Actually, maybe you should stay somewhere else for now. I know that sounds crazy, but trust me. I’ll explain everything when I get home, I promise. I love you.” Then I hang up.

I feel bad about being so vague. I know that Kennedy is going to get worried when she hears that message, but I need to warn her and tell her that she might not be safe. Besides that, I know that she’d worry even more if she didn’t hear from me at all.

I go and sit back down in the living room.

“Do you really think that Grigori guy will go to your house?” Mrs. Byers asks me.

“I have no doubt that Kline sent him after us. I mean, when he found us at Hess Farm. We got away, and Kline knows where I live and that I read those documents.”

“But you said that you think your dad is involved in this. If your dad thought this would put you in danger-”

“My dad doesn’t care.” If I’m being honest with myself, it’s been obvious for a while that my dad doesn’t care about my mom or me. And he barely tolerates Kennedy, most likely because Kennedy is the only one who saw through him from the beginning. Even if my dad _knew_ that this would put me in direct danger, I know that he wouldn’t have cared.


End file.
